Longmont’s open forum became a real gas Tuesday night.
More than half of the speakers who came to the City Council’s annual event on Tuesday had oil and gas fracking on their minds — and not as supporters.
They praised the city’s 120-day moratorium on drilling applications, urged the adoption of tough regulations such as a 1,000-foot separation between wells and occupied buildings, and deplored the amount of water used in hydraulically fracturing a well to get at hard-to-reach deposits — an estimated 5 million gallons to start the well, and still more when a well is “re-fracked.”
Some of the talking was about talking, as some speakers urged the council not to limit public comment during City Council meetings. Councilwoman Bonnie Finley recently proposed a 30-minute cap on the opening public comment session.
“Public involvement is more important than getting home at an early hour,” Chris Rodriguez told the council.
Mayor Dennis Coombs said he’d wanted a six-month moratorium, “but as Brian (Bagley) once told me, I’m one vote of seven on a schizophrenic council.”
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